Smartphones to kill the computer?

The desktop personal computer will be redundant in three years thanks to the growing uptake of smartphones, it has been suggested.

Google made the suggestion despite recent research from Consumer Focus revealing that 12 million people – one in three households – in the UK do not have access to the internet at home.

Consumers could wish to sell an old mobile phone for cash to put towards a new smartphone with quick internet access such as the HTC Hero or an Apple iPhone.

Leigh Geary, webmaster of CoolSmartPhone.com, said: “It was only recently, while reviewing the new Google Android-powered HTC Hero [a new smartphone], that I found myself using my laptop less and less.”

He added that he moved his domain to Google Apps and now his mail is scanned, filtered and delivered to his handset in a “perfectly readable format”.